It could be argued that Tub, on the surface, is a stock character: a cartoon-like obese man who is the butt of other people's jokes. What characterizing details help to make Tub into a fully realized individual?
As the story opens, the fact that Tub is ostracized by Frank and Kenny is evident. They make constant jokes about his weight and downplay his intelligence. The first detail that fills in his character is his getting lost in the woods. His reaction to the separation between the other two and himself is fear. "He quickened his pace, breasting hard into the drifts, fighting away the snow with his knees and elbows. He heard his heart and felt the flush on his face but he never once stopped" (Wolff, 190). This shows that he was not dumbly oblivious to the world around him. Later in the story, he admits his lie to Frank and reveals the secret of his binge-eating. This presents Tub as a more rounded character in that he recognized his problem and feels extremely ashamed of it. Through this, Wolff evokes sympathy for Tub. At the end of the story, the culprit is more Frank than it is Tub. This is due to the sympathy that Wolff created for him earlier on.
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